- Small creatures from South Park that have to go to work. They work all night and they search for underpants! They won’t stop until they have underpants. Why do they do that you may ask. For profit, of course. They have just not quite figured out phase 2.
- They can mostly be observed in Tweak’s room all hours of the night.
Phase 1-Get underpants
Phase 2-?????????
Phase 3- $$$PROFIT$$$
Phase 1: Collect Underpants
Whether you realize it or not, you are an underpants, gnome! Any time you read an inspiring news story, watch a YouTube video of somebody doing something amazing, or read a book like this one that encourages you to make changes in your life, you are collecting underpants.
In fact, most of us, spend all day reading, watching, or listening to things and then going, ‘Whoa, it would be so cool if I could do that!’ Then we dutifully move on to the next nugget of knowledge or inspiration that makes us say, ‘I’d love to do that some day!’ Each time we do this, we are contributing to our pile of underpants. Whether it’s scanning a fitness site for advice on completing a marathon, reading a phrase book to better learn French, watching a video of somebody doing parkour, attending a TEDx conference and learning about volunteering opportunities in Africa, or even just reading this very book, we are all making mental notes of the things we’d like to do. This is the equivalent of collecting a pile of underpants.
Welcome to Phase 1.
Phase 2: ?
When someone inevitably asks, ‘What’s phase 2?’ every gnome replies with ‘Phase 3 is profit!’ So they know collecting underpants is Phase 1 and the Phase 3 is profit, but Phase 2 is a complete mystery. Nobody has any idea what it is! They consult their business plan, and Phase 2 is just a giant question mark.
So, rather than trying to figure it out, these gnomes spend all day and all night dutifully collecting underpants without having a clue as to how to move onto Phase 2, which would then eventually get them to the all-important Phase 3.
When someone inevitably asks, ‘What’s phase 2?’ every gnome replies with ‘Phase 3 is profit!’ So they know collecting underpants is Phase 1 and the Phase 3 is profit, but Phase 2 is a complete mystery. Nobody has any idea what it is! They consult their business plan, and Phase 2 is just a giant question mark.Phase 3: Profit
Phase 3 is what you hope to accomplish after starting to build your pile: your life when you are firing on all cylinders. You are embarking on adventures, you are challenging yourself, you wake up excited, you feel purpose each and every day. When you join the Rebellion, you learn to dominate Phase 2.
You can spend all day every day learning and collecting and researching. You could read this book so many times that you memorize it cover to cover. In fact, you could become the best information gatherer in the entire world, for hundreds of subjects.
Gathering information is a great start
Phase 1 is a crucial part of the equation. After all, it’s tough to sove a problem if you don’t study it, and it’s tough to work out a solution without understanding what you hope to accomplish with it. However, if you only focus on Phase 1, all you’ll be left with is a big pile of underpants!
Phase 2 is about figuring out what to do with that knowledge you’ve been collecting so that you can advance to Phase 3, which could be health, love, happiness, adventure, or any combination of the things that remind us it’s a damn good day to be alive. People who dominate Phase 2 are action-takers. They understand that collecting a few underpants and then immediately trying to do things with that knowledge is a much faster path to Phase 3 than just collecting more and more underpants!
Phase 2 is about:
- Learning, trying, failing, backtracking, trying again, and learning even more.
- Going for your first hike despite not having the best gear.
- Attempting your first push-up even if it’s ugly.
- Trying to build your first mobile app instead of reading yet another book on that language.
- Approaching somebody you’d like to meet rather than reading yet another book on social skills.
- The ability to fail repeatedly and continue to attempt new and different ways to succeed.
[bluebox]The truth is there is never better time to start than right now. I can promise you that ‘eventually’ never happens, and that ‘someday’ never comes. [/bluebox]
Related Reading:
Complement Level Up Your Life with 8 Growth Gap Traps.